This invention pertains to a protective combination comprising a face mask and a protective garment having a hood, as wearable by a firefighter or by an emergency worker. This invention contemplates that the protective combination also comprises an inflatable seal between the face mask and the hood.
Commonly, when called upon to deal with hazardous chemical or biological materials, a firefighter or an emergency worker wears a face mask, which is connected to a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) or to a respirator having an air filter, and a protective garment, such as protective coveralls, which has a hood. It has been known, heretofore, to use fluid-tight tape to form a fluid-tight seal between the face mask and the hood.
Commonly, a face mask to be thus worn has a transparent window and a rubbery, face-conformable gasket around the transparent window. Commonly, the rubbery, face-conforming gasket has an outwardly opening trough, which bounds the transparent window. Such a face mask having such a gasket having such a trough is available commercially from numerous.
This invention provides, in a protective combination wearable by a firefighter or by an emergency worker, a face mask, a protective garment, which has a hood, and an inflatable seal between the face mask and the hood.
Preferably, in the protective combination, the face mask has an outwardly opening trough, the protective garment has a hood having a peripheral edge, and an inflatable tube is provided, which is adapted to form a fluid-tight seal between the face mask and the hood, when the inflatable tube is inflated so as to press the peripheral edge of the hood into the outwardly opening trough, whereby to provide a seal between the face mask and the hood. Preferably, the face mask has a face-conformable gasket, which has the outwardly opening trough. Preferably, the peripheral edge of the hood has a tubular hem, through which the inflatable tube extends.
In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the protective combination comprises a face mask, which has a face-conformable gasket defining an outwardly opening trough, a protective garment, which has a hood having a peripheral edge and defining a tubular hem along the peripheral edge, and an inflatable tube, which extends through the tubular hem and which is adapted to form a fluid-tight seal between the face-conformable gasket and the peripheral edge of the hood, when the inflatable tube is inflated so as to press the tubular hem along the peripheral edge of the hood into the outwardly opening trough, whereby to provide a seal between the face mask and the hood.